The Boxing Mantis by Nika
(Trinity Beach State School)A praying mantis is green
so it blends-in to help it hide.
It has big, brave bulging eyes
that never ever blink.They eat other insects
and juicy green leaves,
but luckily for us
they don’t eat people.They have four long swaying legs
and two strong punching legs
that bend-up by their chin
so they look like they’re going to
PUNCH YOU!
Insect Limerick by Pamela Koltunicki
There once was a bug named Tattoo
who loved rolling big balls of poo.
One day, pushing faeces,
he saw the same species,
and yelled, “you’re a dung beetle too!”
Scavenging Achievers by Sukarma Rani Theraja
I was asleep
when a copper-coloured beetle touched my feet.Strongest insect that fondly eats
our planet’s daily waste.
Rolling, digging and tunnelling dung,
it sings songs of life with balls of dung.
Forwards and backwards into balls,Rolling, rolling spheres of manure,
picking-up seeds at every turn.
Moving, dispersing and fertilizing
seeds on-the-move by rolled dung balls.Digging, digging to bury those balls.
A store of moisture, a harvest of food.
A safe abode and nursery,
brooding babies, all-in-a-ball.Tunnelling, tunnelling, spreading that dung,
repeatedly changing the texture of soil.
Porosity, quality, germination
all get better where dung beetles dwell.Egyptians and Adivasi knew
the values of these scarab saviours.
So keep these achievers in the loop,
revere those scavenging beetle troops,
cleaning up our planet’s poops.